Machine for coating metal plates with metals or alloys



April 14, 1936. L DAWES 2,037,503

MACHINE FOR COATING METAL PLATES WITH METALS OH ALLOYS Filed April 1, 1935 2.037.503 I mom son con-mo mar. m'rss wrrn mans omaumrs- Samuel Davies, arms rm, Wales, it-1miof -one-half to Saml. Davies: Alexander Engineering works Limited, Briton 'Ferry, Wales, a

oompanyofGreat Application spin 1. 19:5, Serial No. 14,101

In Great Britain April 3, 1934 3 Claims. (cl. a1-1z.5)

This invention relates to machines for coating metal plateswith' tin and other metals or alloys for the production, for instance, of tinned, terne -and'like plates, and has for'its principal object to providejimpro'ved mechanism in these machines for enhancing the quality or appearance of the completed plates, economizing in coating metal 01' alloy and the output.

According to thisinvention, the grease pot or hopper-of these machines is fitted with a platewiping roll and with'an associated brush-like wiper adapted to operate on the opposite face of M the platetothatoperated upon by the roll. There I maybe'asingierolLor several rollseach having its brush-like wiper, and when the xplataaretobecoatedonbothsidestheremav be rolls and wipers operative on oppositesides of g the plates. operate to wipe the plates free from excess coating metal and foreign mat-'- ter and the brush-like wipers'assist the action and plates against the rolls, and very adwiping is attainable without liability of flieplates to buckle in their passage through greasepot. The grease pot may be made deeper than for the accommodation of these wiping devices and this gives the platesa longer path in the pot -and allows a longer time z for the metal or; alloy to drain of! theplates.

Owing tothe use of the wiping means, the machines may be worked eiliciently at a greater speed than heretofore usual, resulting in increase output: Such wiping devices also result in minimum expenditure of tin oruothercoating metal or alloy andthey produce a brighter finished plate.' I

111a wiping roll or rolls may be of larger diam eter than the normal forwarding or finishing rolls 5 to give them an appropriately greater peripheral speed thanthe latter rolls, and they are preferably also driven at a greater speed than the latter rolls to enhance the wiping action. The brush-like wipers may be of asbestos fibre and take the form of a pad, or may simply comprise a metal plate such as asteel plate, and they may be springpressed or weighted to press upon the plates. When there are no plates passing through the machine or duringint'ervals between the successiveplates, the wipers may serve for wiping or cleaning the wiping roll or'rolls. The forwarding orfinishing rolls may be caused to exert constant pressure on the-plates through sprung or other loading meansv In order to enable the invention to be readily understood, one practical construction of tinning or like'machine is illustrated by way of example vation.

The machine is intended for the coating of metal plates on both faces and comprises a grease-v. pot a and a shallow bath or tin-pot b for molten 5 coating metal. The bath is mounted on a base or frame 0 and the -pot has brackets or lugs d by which it is bolted to the bath. The bath is of segmental shape or has a curved bottom and at the front is provided with a pair of feed rolls e. The latter are mounted in bearings in inclined slots in brackets and pressure may be 7 applied by hand-screws a. The brackets f are referred to in the plural although only one is shown and the same applies to other parts which would obviously be duplicated in the actual machine; A flux-box i of hopper shape extends from just below the feed rollse tothe nip of a pair of tinning orcoatlngrollshintheb'athbandis provided with lugs or brackets j for fixing it to the top of the ,bath. The bearings of the rolls h are mounted. in inclined slots in guide brackets k fitted in the bath and presure may be applied by hand screws 1. Beyond the nip of the rolls 7!. is a curved guide, or guides, such as m carried by the support 11 and projecting upwardly to near the nip of a pair of forwarding or finishing rolls 0 mounted near the bottom of the grease-pot.

The grease-pot extends at its lower end into the bath b and, like the flux box f, it dips below the level of the molten metal. The several rolls in the grease-pot are carried by bearing-plates p disposed one at each side of the pot and bolted v or otherwise removably secured by lug parts 1' to the top of the pot. One roll of the pair of rolls 0 vaforesaid is mounted in fixed bearings in slots s in the plates 9 while the bearings of the other roll of the pair are movable in these slots and pressed towards the fixed bearings by doublearmed levers t pivoted at u to the plates p. The 0 upper arms of the levers are adjustably held at the top of the grease-pot by bolts 12 mounted in brackets 11:, either with or without the intervention pf springs such as 1:. Or the levers may be yieldlngly pressed against the bearings of the movable mounted in'brackets 3 disposed at the other side as 2 aosmoa ofthebearingplatespandthisbrushwhichmay bev weighted by an iron bar as at I, bears elastically or yieldingly at its outer-end against the wiping roll 1 and wipes one face o'r sid e of the coated plates as they rise out of the nip of the mils o. In addition, when a plate has passed up, the brush wipes thes'urface of the wiping roll. A

second wiping roll 4 and brush 5 are similarly dlspsedinslotsorguldessuchas8in' the bearing plates p, the bearings of one: mll be- 20 ing immovable whilst the bearings of the other roll are engaged by the lower arms of levers! 'piv'otally' mounted at II in the Dlatesp and adat the upper end in a similar mam. '-nerfto the levers t as shown.

V 25 7 Then above the pair of rolls 1 is another-and mounted pair of forwarding or finish- 'l] which deliver the coated andwiped platefto a cleaning machine, levers I 2, pivoted fat'llbeing' used in this case to maintain pressurei so between the mils.

Thelevers t, I and I: may be forked levers u it is desired to avoid duplication of the bolts and I mayactprincipallyn guidesfortheplatespass .Inlorderto facilitate, mounting of therolls l and l ingplatespatthe top, for the two sets of mils being spaced apart'by distance pieces 50 orinsertssuchas liand the it being closedby plates ll. r

It will be observed that-owing to the mounting of the aforesaid wiping rolls and brushes and forwarding or finishing rolls in the plates p, these 55 parts may be removed as a whole from the machine for adjustment or other purposes.- The brackets such as w for the levers t, 9 and II are molmteda the plate lugs r so that the levers may be-removed with the mils and brushes as hearings on the top of the grease-pot or. elsewhere for the purpose of imparting motion to the various rolls. This shaft is provided with a- 65 clutch or fast and loose pulleys and the shaft shown has a; sprocket wheel I'll which imparts motion to one of the feed-mils e by a chain l8 over a similar sprocket wheel I! on su h 2} mounted in suitable bearings above the tinning mlls h. Thisshaft 23 carries aspur gear which gears with a spur gear 24 on one of the f tinning rolls and the latter are geared together like the feed rolls.

The pairs of rolls and the wiping rolls in the grease-pot are rotated by means of a spur or like wheel-25 keyed to'the driving shaft. This wheel 25 transmits motion to a wheel 26 on one of the upper pair of rolls I l and this wheel 26 meshes 'witha wheel 21 on one of the next pair of rolls 1. A wheel 28 revoluble with wheel 21 next transl0 mits motion to a wheel 29 on the wiping roll I and a further wheel revoluble with wheel 29 meshes with a wheel 3| on thelower wiping roll 1 Finally awheel l! revoluble with wheel 3| meshes with a wheel 33 on the shaft of one of the lowermost pair of rolls 0 in the grease-pot. The mils of each pair of rolls 0, 1 and I l are gearedtogether like the rolls e and 'h. v

The rolls of the several pairs e, h, o, I and Ii have similar diameter and their driving gearing is such that they rotate at the same speed. The driving wheels for the wiping rolls 1 and 4, however, are such that these rolls may rotate at a .1 higher speed than the other mils so as to improve the wiping action. As will be seen these wiping rolls rotateiin the same direction as the corresponding rolls .of the several pairs aforesaid.

The bath 1) for'containing the molten tin or the likeandthe grease-pot a for containing the 1 grease, generallypalm-oil; are heated in any convenient or well-known manner and suitable locations ofjseveral so-called "fires are indicated diagremmati'cally'at 34, 35 and ll;

--In operation, the plates to be treated are led at successive intervals to the.feed 'rolls c and are 35 fedori'orwarded by them through the flux-box i to thetinning or coating mils h which feed or the plates upwardly into the grease-pots. The plates first encounter the lower wiping mil 1 which,"moving at a higher peripheral speed than the .rolls I, effects a wiping action on one side of'the plate assisted by the pressure of the brush 1. Then in the further upward travel the plates next encounter the; wiping roll 4 and brush I- andfinallypasstotherolls land l'l,therolls-'I drawing or guiding the plates up to the rolls Ii 0 by which the plates are finallydelivered from the rease-pot. The metal or'alloy is more or less unevenly coated on the plates when'they leave the bath I or tin-pot b and the effect of the wiping rolls is to wipe oil surplus coating metal and even it up. They also clean the plate by wiping oil. bath impurities or scrufi'fi The brushes I, I, alsoexert a wiping action and improve the inv p herent wiping action of the wiping-rolls by keep- A driving-shaft such as IT may be mounted in ing the plates against the mils. Finally, the brushes in bearing on the plates opposite to the wiping rolls exert a certain restraint which prevents any likelihood of the plates buckling be- 1 tween the wiping rolls and the forwarding or finishing rolls 1 due to the difference. in speed of the wiping mils and such forwarding or fin ishing rolls. Also there can be no buckling of the plates between the wiping rolls and the lower 2 pair of forwarding or finishing rolls 0 because the wiping rolls rotate at a-greater peripheral speed than these rolls 0. The wiping operation, and the action of the machine are thus very emcient and production may consequently be speeded up so that altogether increased output 1 is obtainable from one machine and a brighter finished plate obtained with minimum consumption of coating metal or alloy.

If desired one or both of the upper pairs of forwarding or finishing rolls 1, ll may revolve in a small tinning bath or the like to increase the thickness of the coating of metal or alloy.

I claim:-

1. In a machine for coating metal plates with tin and other metals and alloys, a grease pot. a pair of forwarding or finishing rolls mounted in said grease pot, a plate-wiping roll mounted in said grease pot and of larger diameter than said forwarding or finishing rolls, a brush-like wiper mounted in said grease pot in association with said plate-wiping roll and operative on the opposite face of the metal plates to that operated upon by said plate-wiping roll, and means for driving said plate-wiping roll at a greater speed of revolution than said grease-pot rolls.

2. In a machine for coating metal plates with tin and other metals and alloys. a grease pot, a plate-wiping roll mounted in said grease pot, a brush-like wiper mounted in said grease pot with its operative end opposite to and on a level with said ,roll so as to be operative on the opposite face of the metal plates to that operated upon by said roll, and means for constantly pressing said wiper towards said roll.

3. A metal coating machine comprising a tinpot having a curved bottom; a flux-box and a grease pot mounted in said tin-pot to dip below the surface of molten-metal therein, a pair of feed rolls mounted on said tin-pot adjacent to the entrance to said flux-box, a pair of coating rolls mounted in said pot adjacent to the exit of said flux-box, plate-guide means extending from the neighbourhood of said coating rolls into the lower end of said grease pot, a pair of forwarding or finishing rolls mounted in said grease pot adjacent to the forward end of said plateguide means, a wiping roll mounted in said grease-pot above said pair of forwarding or finishing rolls, a brush-like wiper. mounted in said grease pot opposite to said plate-wiping roll and operative on the opposite'face of the metal plates to that operated upon by said plate-wiping roll. a second pair of forwarding or finishing rolls mounted in said grease pot above said platewiping roll and brush-like wiper, and means for heating said tin-pot and grease pot.

SAMUEL DAVIES.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 2,057,505. April 14, 1966.

SAMUEL DAVIES.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed Specification or the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 3, first column. line 20, claim 1, for "greasepot" read forwarding or finishing; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 18th day of August, A. D. 1956.

Henry Van Arsdale (Seal) Acting Commissi ner of Patents 

